But black-eyed peas are no good without bacon.
There's no strength to them.
Why isn't there any bacon?"
"Mist' Johnnie, he say dar ain' no use puttin' in no side meat."
"You'll put bacon in.
Where do you keep your supplies?"
The negro woman rolled frightened eyes toward the small closet that served as a pantry and Scarlett threw the door open.
There was an open barrel of cornmeal on the floor, a small sack of flour, a pound of coffee, a little sugar, a gallon jug of sorghum and two hams.
One of the hams sitting on the shelf had been recently cooked and only one or two slices had been cut from it.
Scarlett turned in a fury on Johnnie Gallegher and met his coldly angry gaze.
"Where are the five sacks of white flour I sent out last week?
And the sugar sack and the coffee?
And I had five hams sent and ten pounds of side meat and God knows how many bushels of yams and Irish potatoes.
Well, where are they?
You can't have used them all in a week if you fed the men five meals a day.
You've sold them!
That's what you've done, you thief!
Sold my good supplies and put the money in your pocket and fed these men on dried peas and corn pone.
No wonder they look so thin.
Get out of the way."
She stormed past him to the doorway.
"You, man, there on the end--yes, you!
Come here!"
The man rose and walked awkwardly toward her, his shackles clanking, and she saw that his bare ankles were red and raw from the chafing of the iron.
"When did you last have ham?"
The man looked down at the ground.
"Speak up."
Still the man stood silent and abject.
Finally he raised his eyes, looked Scarlett in the face imploringly and dropped his gaze again.
"Scared to talk, eh?
Well, go in the pantry and get that ham off the shelf.
Rebecca, give him your knife.
Take it out to those men and divide it up.
Rebecca, make some biscuits and coffee for the men.
And serve plenty of sorghum.
Start now, so I can see you do it."
"Dat's Mist' Johnnie's privut flour an' coffee," Rebecca muttered frightenedly.
"Mr. Johnnie's, my foot!
I suppose it's his private ham too.
You do what I say.
Get busy.
Johnnie Gallegher, come out to the buggy with me."
She stalked across the littered yard and climbed into the buggy, noticing with grim satisfaction that the men were tearing at the ham and cramming bits into their mouths voraciously.
They looked as if they feared it would be taken from them at any minute.
"You are a rare scoundrel!" she cried furiously to Johnnie as he stood at the wheel, his hat pushed back from his lowering brow.
"And you can just hand over to me the price of my supplies.
In the future, I'll bring you provisions every day instead of ordering them by the month.
Then you can't cheat me."
"In the future I won't be here," said Johnnie Gallegher.
"You mean you are quitting!"